The personal meaning of eating disorder symptoms: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The current study aimed to explore the personal meaning of eating difficulties. Eight women with a variety of eating issues were interviewed. These conversations were then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to construct a framework for understanding the personal world of the interviewees. Three overarching themes identified in participants' accounts of their experiences are reported here: the experience of the eating difficulties as functional; negative effects of having eating difficulties; ambivalence towards the eating difficulties. These themes add to our knowledge of the potential role of personal experiences in the aetiology and maintenance of eating difficulties.